Legendary Wagnerian John Tomlinson coached tenor Neal Cooper in the final scene of Act III, where Parsifal heals Amfortas with the Holy Spear. John has been acclaimed for a number of Wagnerian roles including Wotan in the The Ring Cycle, and Gurnemanz in Parsifal.

Parsifal's director Stephen Langridge and designer Alison Chitty had collaborated previously at Covent Garden on The Minotaur, which had its premiere at Covent Garden in 2008. The creative team spoke about the process of working on Wagner's final masterpiece, which began two and a half years before opening night. They also spoke of how attempted to convey Amfortas's intense suffering, intended by Wagner to be great as Tristan in Tristan und Isolde, multiplied of 10.